This invention relates generally to a graphic user interface and more specifically to a user interface for a mobile radio telephone.
With the widespread popularity of portable communication devices such as a mobile radiotelephones and wireless personal digital assistants, users of the devices are demanding user graphical user interfaces (GUI""s) that are more intuitive and efficient. A new user does not want to spend a lot of time having to learn a complex user interface; both new and experienced users want a user interface that efficiently utilizes input actions. The small size of the displays on radiotelephones, however, has limited the creativity of GUI designers, and graphical prompts currently utilized for the GUI""s of radiotelephones has been limited. In addition, the types of graphical prompts and the ways that they have been displayed provide only limited help in helping a user navigate through the many menus and fields of text that are typically received and transmitted in radiotelephone systems. The user quickly becomes disoriented while trying to navigate through the maze of information on a small radiotelephone display.
Currently, few manufacturers take full advantage of using visual feedback (graphic elements) as a way to orient and guide the user through the on-screen user interface of a mobile radiotelephone. In usability testing, most users have difficulty recognizing a list of items or options without some additional indication present on the display. Users then incorrectly assume the possible input choices available at any given time. This failure to recognize existing lists and input options inhibits the user from learning about basic radiotelephone menu/data scrolling and menu structure. This results in a significant impact on user performance in terms of the time it takes to complete a data input task and the error rates involved with data access. Usability testing also revealed that a context-sensitive menu, which provides additional functionality for the currently highlighted item, needs to be explicitly indicated for users to understand that the additional functionality exists.
Most graphics-based user interfaces utilize one or more context characteristics, such as the position of the current display screen with respect to a larger list or text field or the scrolling of data lines in response to keystrokes. When manufacturers do provide context characteristics into the user interface, other user interface functionality is compromised. For example, the available number of soft-keys can be reduced, thereby forcing the user to scroll through a list of options to perform even the most frequently used inputs.
Accordingly, there is a need for a radiotelephone user interface that incorporates various context characteristics (e.g. visual feedback through graphic elements) that are organized and functionally interconnected such that the user interface is more intuitive and efficient than any existing radiotelephone user interface. In addition, there is a need for a user interface that will reduce the number of errors resulting from human input. There is a further need for providing a user interface that allows a user to be aware of all of the possible input options that are available at a specific time.
Usability testing of radiotelephones has also revealed that users have difficulty entering data into the radiotelephone xe2x80x9cphonebook.xe2x80x9d In addition, manufactures have either tailored the user interface of their radiotelephones for novices (e.g. easy to use user interface) or for experienced users (e.g. user interface not intuitive to a novice user).
For example, when entering data, all manufacturers use a serial process which requires the user to step through a series of data entry screens or editors. For example, in the phonebook function, the user must first enter the name, then press ENTER, then enter the telephone number, then press ENTER, and then enter the location. Users tended to become lost in this process because the user interface process failed to give the user an overview of the editors that will follow the currently displayed editor and there is no positive feedback that the previously entered data has been successfully executed.
The process for setting phone preferences of a radiotelephone is tedious because the user must navigate through a hierarchy and scroll through a list of values to accomplish the task. In one known application in the prior art, a cellular telephone manufacturer avoided the problem by making a flat menu which does not contain many features. This is not desirable since a feature-rich cellular telephone is what sets a cellular telephone apart from other cellular telephones. In another known application in the prior art, a cellular telephone manufacturer designed a user interface to allow for quick access to features by providing xe2x80x9cshortcuts.xe2x80x9d To the novice user, however, the shortcuts are never learned because the shortcuts are not an extension of how the user learned to perform the task in question by the normal, long routine.
Accordingly, there is a need for a mobile telephone user interface with an intuitive method of entering data and setting telephone preferences. The intuitive interface will provide a telephone that is easy to use for the novice user. In addition, there is a need for the radiotelephone user interface that incorporates a method for entering data and setting preferences that allows for increased functionality for the more experienced user.
In one application in the prior art, a cellular telephone incorporates what is termed a scratch-pad feature. The scratch-pad allows a user to enter digits that are then presented on the display of the cellular telephone; the digits are also stored until the user manually removes them. Thus, if a user begins to enter a telephone number but then decides not to make the telephone call, he can forget to manually erase the entered digits. After a certain period of time, the digits will be erased from the display to conserve power, but the digits are still stored in the scratch-pad. When the user later begins to enter digits to make a new telephone call, the digits stored in the scratch-pad will be visible on the display, and the newly entered digits will be appended to the scratch-pad digits. This can cause the wrong telephone number to be entered and dialed, thereby causing confusion and frustration to the user. Accordingly, there is a need for a new way to store entered digits that do not automatically get appended to later, newly entered information.